An unlikely hero
by AlecGman
Summary: A true hero doesn't have to hold a shield or brandish a sword. A hero can exist inside those who don't even seem capable. Even those that could be considered cowards. ( A/U:Takes place after the Season 2 episode: The Questing Beast)
1. A true sacrifice

His knee continued to twitch in an anxious manner. They had been gone for some time, yet no call. 5 hours, he counted. Something was wrong. It was too quiet. No Will Robinson repeating his optimistic remarks, no Major Don West to rebuke him. The inside of the Jupiter II was as still and quiet as a photograph. Everything seemed to move in such a slow manner that he wondered if he was even existing in the same time. However, an irritating noise brought the man to his senses. He turned to face the noise and noticed the Robot rolling along, heading towards the main door of the ship.

"And where do you think you're going, you bumptious blot?!" Dr. Zachary Smith yelled, his English accent bringing life to the room.

The Robot turned towards Dr. Smith and responded in his traditional monotone voice.

"The Robinsons have been gone for far too long, Dr. Smith. I'm going to look for them." The Robot responded, turning back to the main door.

Dr. Smith knew that something was wrong, but he felt it in him to get the last word.

"Well, go on then! Why should I bother with those…freaks of nature." Dr. Smith replied, turning away from the Robot.

The Robot simply ignored Dr. Smith and exited the ship. Dr. Smith chuckled to himself as the room grew quiet again.

However, almost immediately, the silence began to eat away at Smith. He was alone once more. He hated it, being alone, especially when there was danger. Something didn't feel right to him. He never cared for the Robinsons, nor Don for that matter. Will was the only thing on his mind. _What if something went wrong? What if he's in trouble? He can take care of himself, but what if something happened?_

"Wait, Wait, Wait for me, you mechanical moron!" Dr. Smith yelled, exiting the ship as well.

Dr. Smith noticed the Robot only a few feet away from the ship. His treads making marks in the ground due to the planet's desert like terrain. The Robot turned to face Dr. Smith.

"Ah, Dr. Smith, what an unpleasant surprise." The Robot said in its monotone voice.

Dr. Smith scowled. "Mind your manners, you incompetent idiot! I'll lead the way, don't get in mine."

The Robot chuckled to himself as Dr. Smith walked past him. Despite this, the robot followed closely behind Dr. Smith as they traveled to where the Robinsons and Major West had gone.

It didn't take the duo long to find the abandoned remains of the Chariot, torn to pieces and scattered about. Dr. Smith immediately panicked and held his chest, composing himself.

"Scared of scrap metal, Dr. Smith. Why am I not surprised?"

Dr. Smith scowled once more towards the Robot, not bothering to respond. He turned back towards the Chariot and noticed a cave in front of it, carved into the mountain. Dr. Smith approached the hole in the wall of the mountain and peered from a distance. The hole appeared quite small, almost to the point where a person would have to be on their hands and knees to traverse the tight space.

"They must be in there. They must be fine." Dr. Smith said, trying to turn back.

The Robot used his claw and grabbed Dr. Smith by the arm.

"Let go of me, you mechanical fiend!" Dr. Smith yelled, swatting at the claw, to no avail.

"Dr. Smith, my sensors indicate that the Robinsons and Major West are in major danger. They are trapped inside that small hole and you have to get them out.

"Why me? Why can't you do it?!" Dr. Smith yelled, trying to free his arm.

"I can't fit inside of that hole, Dr. Smith. It's up to you." The Robot said, releasing his claw from Dr. Smith's arm.

Dr. Smith immediately began to walk away from the hole and back towards the Jupiter II. However, he stopped in his tracks. _Oh, William! I can't leave him in there! I would be lonely and have to converse with a piece of scrap metal!_

"Blazes!" Dr. Smith yelled, walking back towards the cave entrance.

The thought of Will being trapped inside of the cave terrified Smith to his core. He didn't know why the Robinsons even bothered with the cave, but he didn't care. He needed to help Will. Without a second thought, Dr. Smith began to crawl inside the hole and began making his way inside.

"By the way, Dr. Smith. My sensors also indicate that the cave might collapse at any minute. I would recommend that you hurry."

"Oh, shut up, you bumbling bucket of bolts!" Dr. Smith retorted as he continued along.

After crawling for a few minutes, he came across a large hole in the ground with light emitting from the bottom. He looked down and didn't know whether or not he should feel happiness or remorse. The Robinsons and Major West were alive and well, but they were looking for different avenues on how to get out.

"Hello?!" Dr. Smith yelled, hoping to get the group's attention.

"Dr. Smith! I knew you'd come!" Will Robinson yelled from the bottom of the hole.

Dr. Smith couldn't help but smile. "Never fear! Smith is here!"

"Enough, Smith. Find a way to get us out of here." John Robinson called from down below.

Dr. Smith almost gave his own rebuttal, but knew that time was waning. He looked around him and noticed a rope that was slightly hanging down, but appeared to snapped on the way down.

After a few adjustments and yelling at the Robot, Dr. Smith was able to make the rope long enough.

"A rope's coming down!" Dr. Smith yelled as he lowered the rope.

He immediately felt tugging on the rope and felt something climbing up.

"Come on, we don't have all day, you know!" Dr. Smith yelled down the group.

As the person reached the top of the hole, Dr. Smith was delighted to see Will Robinson sitting directly in front of him.

"Oh, William! It's so good to see you!" Dr. Smith said, a wide smile on his face.

"No time for that now, Smith! We've got to get them out of there." Will yelled, pointing down towards his family.

Dr. Smith instinctively nodded and prepared the rope.

"I'll get them out. You get out of here, the cave may collapse at any moment." Smith instructed.

Will nodded and began to crawl his way back towards the entrance of the cave.

After a few minutes, Dr. Smith was able to get the whole family out of the hole, along with Major West. However, he let them all go first, including Major West, who was the last one out of the hole.

"Come on, Smith. Let's get out of here!" West yelled, crawling quickly.

Dr. Smith's old age began to catch up with him and his back began to truly feel pain. He could see the light from the entrance to the cave. He could hear the young boy yelling for him to hurry. He was mere meters from the entrance. He could practically taste the air from his location. A simple cracking noise stopped Dr. Smith in his tracks. He looked up to see the cave beginning to give way.

"Oh, the pain…the pain." Dr. Smith uttered, as the rocks came tumbling towards him.

As dust began to fly out of the hole in the mountain, the family's mouth was agape. Will immediately ran to the entrance.

"Dr. Smith! Dr. Smith, can you hear me?!" Will yelled towards the hole.

Tears formed in Will's eyes as he continued to sit in front of the cave entrance. John Robinson walked up to Will and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry son, I know he was your friend."

As John consoled his son, Major West had mixed feelings. He always hated Dr. Smith, but he had just risked, and lost, his life to save himself and the Robinsons. Penny and Maureen simply began to cry as they realized what truly happened to Dr. Smith.

"He gave his life to protect us. I never thought he had it in him, but he proved me wrong. Dr. Zachary Smith will be missed." The Robot stated, giving his final words to a man he had spoken to mere minutes ago.


	2. One final goodbye

The sun began to set beyond the yellow and orange horizon, its soft light illuminated the Robinsons, the Robot, and Major West surrounding the grave of the fallen doctor, which had been buried a small distance from the Jupiter 2.

John Robinson placed his arms behind his back as approached the grave. "You know why we're all here today. There's no avoiding what has happened. Dr. Smith gave his life in the line of duty, whether he wanted to or not is irrelevant. I believe that we at least owe him a few words, from each of us."

John turned back towards his family. He looked at Major West who replied with a look in the eye. "If it's negative, keep that to yourself. Like I said, whether or not we hated or liked him, we cannot deny what he has done. I'll start."

John swung around fluently back towards the grave of Dr. Smith. He chuckled as he began to speak.

"I never liked you, Smith. Not really. Although, I personally want to thank you for what you did, wherever you are. You may not be back on Earth, but you've been given the greatest adventure man could ask for. Life after death." John finished by bowing his head.

Tears fell from Will's eyes as his father finished speaking. The Robot turned to face Will.

"Will Robinson, are you alright?" The Robot asked, placing a claw on Will's shoulder.

Will angrily looked at the Robot. "Don't you dare touch me, you bumbling bucket of bolts!"

The Robot immediately retracted his claw from Will in shock. Will shoved past the Robot and stomped back towards the Jupiter 2.

"Will!" John yelled with no reply.

John immediately began to pursue Will. His footsteps created large gaps between one another. Before John could make a large distance, Maureen intervened by placing a hand on his chest.

"Let him go, John. He needs time." Maureen said softly.

John took a deep breath. "But…"

"Listen, John. You may not have liked Dr. Smith, but he was Will's friend. He may have been a stowaway, but he provided what we couldn't. Friendship. Let him go, John." Maureen finished.

John grabbed Maureen's hand with a soft touch. He looked her in the eyes and lowered his head.

"You're right, I know you are. Alright, we'll give him some time." John said, hugging Maureen.

Will entered the Jupiter 2 and quickly closed the main door, not wanting his family to bother him. He leaned against the closed door, his head in his hands. _How could Dad say that? Dr. Smith was a good man, why would he say that in front of me?_

The silence of the Jupiter 2 was eerie to Will. Usually, there would be more going on. His family eating at the dinner table with…

"God." Will said to himself.

He looked towards the window that was close to the main door. He looked out the window to see that his sister was giving her words to the former doctor.

"I don't exactly know what to say, but, I'll miss you, Dr. Smith. I know that you meant well when you saved my…I mean, our family." Penny finished, her head lowering.

Will turned away from the window and towards the ladder and elevator that lead to the lower floor of the ship. He immediately approached the ladder and began his descent. Once he reached the lower floor, he observed where he had first met Dr. Smith. He was meddling with the Robot, hoping to destroy the family, yet…he would save what he had attempted to destroy.

_"You're not supposed to do that." Will said, opening the elevator._

_ Dr. Smith smiled at the young boy. "Now, who's the doctor? You or me?"_

_ Will eyed the strange man carefully. The reluctant stowaway stuck aboard the ship. "But they told us in the briefing-"_

_ "Would you like me to teach you how to program him how to play chess?" Dr. Smith interrupted, directing Will's attention to the Robot._

Will shook his head as the memories escaped him. Death was a foreign concept to Will. He couldn't understand. _Why didn't he just crawl faster? He could've gotten out. Why did he stop? Did he want that to happen to him?_

Will looked towards the room where Dr. Smith had been staying since he had been trapped aboard. He slid back the curtain to his room, which had been left remarkably clean. All of the items that were of importance to Smith were still there. His clothes from that first voyage lay folded neatly on his dresser, next to his doctor's bag, which was almost never used.

The young boy sat on Dr. Smith's bed. It felt comfortable, especially for those whose backs were in constant pain. Will, however, felt uncomfortable as he felt like he was sitting on something hard. It was a rectangular shape and was almost pressing into his skin. He immediately stood up and began to look underneath the mattress to see what it was. He reached his hand underneath the mattress and pulled out the rectangular object. The stained pages of the journal stood out to Will, as if it was over 30 years old. He opened the book to the first page and noticed the date at the top. _1955? _

_I had my tenth birthday today. It was very nice. My mother didn't buy me anything, but she was able to afford a small cupcake. She had placed a single candle in the brown piece of bread that signified my transition into the double digits. She also gave me this journal to write down my thoughts or ideas. I couldn't be more grateful to my dear mother. I hope she survives what she's going through. She has…a disease of some kind. She won't tell me what it is and it's scaring me. I hope to know soon and I hope she stays strong._

Will began to skim the pages of the diary. Smith's writing began to grow more and more hateful.

_September 1__st__, 1991_

_ How dare they?! Refuse me?! Dr. Zachary Smith?! I was refused the position that I had earned?! It was robbed from me, the fools! They don't know who they are fooling, except for themselves. I can't stand this!_

Will continued looking through the pages of the old journal until he came across the final page that Dr. Smith had written into.

_Unknown day, 1998_

_ The Robinsons have left today to try and scavenge materials from a cave not too far from here. They took the Chariot just in case they needed to carry more. I can't explain what's been going on with me. I've been having…nightmares of my demise. That feeling of death that no one can escape is hitting me with full force at this very moment within my former enemy's room. The nightmares involve myself and Will. I save him, but I can never escape my fate. I know that I will die today; I hope and pray that it is painless._

_ They have been gone for over 5 hours now. I can't wait any longer. I need to find them. Whoever may read this, Will I hope, don't blame yourself for what's going to happen. I, Dr. Zachary Smith, will not allow anything bad to happen to you. I would rather give my life than see that happen to you. Goodbye Will Robinson and don't forget to tell your family that I will miss them dearly. Of, and of course, send my condolences to Major West. Don't forget to beat that blasted robot at chess for me._

Will's mouth fell agape as he finished the reading the writing. He clutched the diary close to his chest.

"Will, it's okay." A voice called from the doorway.

Will looked up to see Penny standing in the doorway, but lowered his eyes, tears flowing. Penny sat next to Will on the bed. She placed her arms around him and Will replied with the same action.

"You'll be alright, Will. I promise." Penny said, her hug with Will continuing for some time.

"Thank you, Penny. Truly." Will responded, releasing himself from Penny.

"Come on, let's get something to eat, huh?" Penny said, smiling at him.

Will wiped the tears from his eyes. "Yeah, go on, I'll catch up."

Penny nodded and stood up. "Don't take too long, alright?"

Will nodded. "I won't."

Penny smiled once more and exited the room. Will placed the journal back underneath the mattress and approached the door to the room. He turned back one last time to the room of his friend.

"Goodbye, Dr. Smith."


End file.
